His advancement to the rank of commander, took place Aug, 27, 1810; but he did not receive his commission (appointing him to the Sparrow brig, of 16 guns) till Feb. 2, 1811.
After cruising, for several months, off St. Domingo and in the Mona passage. Captain Tayler was ordered to accompany the Elk brig, and a fleet of merchantmen from Negril bay to England, where he arrived Sept 27, 1811. In the course of the voyage home, he recaptured a large ship, laden with colonial produce.
When refitted, the Sparrow was attached to the squadron employed on the north coast of Spain, where Captain Tayler soon rendered himself eminently useful in surveying different harbours, particularly Socoa and St. Jean de Luz, and in ascertaining the strength of the different French garrisons along the shore of Biscay; drawing plans of the enemy’s works, and obtaining correct information respecting their forces in the interior of that province.
The Sparrow formed part of the squadron under Sir Home Popham at the reduction of Lequitio, June 21, 1812; and the subsequent destruction of the enemy’s fortifications at Bermeo, Plencia, Galea, Algorta, Begona, El Campillo las Quersas, Xebiles, and Castro. A detailed account of these operations, which were acknowledged by Lord Wellington to have been of use to his movements, will be found at pp. 523–526 of Vol. II. Part II.
The works at Plencia were destroyed under the immediate superintendence of Captain Tayler, who there had a very narrow escape. Having blown up one angle of the fort, and nearly completed his preparations for demolishing the remainder, he was in the act of jamming a stone into the train-hole, which had been made rather too large, when some gunpowder, in a bag near him, accidentally ignited, and communicating with the mine, caused a premature explosion. The shock stunned him for some time, and part of the ruins, upwards of a ton weight, fell only two feet from him; the gunner, to whose carelessness the accident is to be attributed, nearly lost his sight, and several men were very badly scorched: one poor fellow was blown to the brink of an immense precipice, over which he would have rolled if not timely rescued.
